Mathers rues missed oppertunity

Wakefield fullback Richie Mathers has described his side’s loss as another missed opportunity.

After a 44-40 defeat away to Leeds the previous Monday night, Wakefield fell to west-Yorkshire rivals Bradford losing 34-26 at Odsal.

It was another game Mathers feels the Wildcats should have won.

He said: “It’s another one that we’ll look back and kick ourselves. It was just too many errors that cost us and invited Bradford into our half.  We kicked a lot of ball dead and gave over cheap errors in our half and you can’t allow that against any team in Super League.

“If you get blown off the park and the team you play against are electric then sometimes it’s hard to swallow the defeat but you can understand it.  But when you’re as dominant as we were then we really should have won that and we’re absolutely gutted.

“We should have won last week and we were in a very similar position this week and should have won.”

Mathers blamed his side’s lack of effort in the first half for the loss, and the weather conditions which did not help the Wildcats.

He said: “There was a massive headwind in the first half and we seemed to lack a bit of energy.  We found that in the second quarter of the game and managed to get ahead.  We were pretty pumped at half-time with the wind at our back and thought we could use that to our advantage.

“We were really conscious to use the wind but it wasn’t going to win us the game.  At the end of the day there were too many errors and not enough composure.”